Why we should talk more shit

I chose this talk given by Rose George in February 2013. A "curious Journalist", she cares about topics that we are unaware but always surrounded of. In this talk about the humble latrine, she presents the dangers that derive from bad sanitation in a very engaging way. It is 14 minutes long.

Rose George - Let's talk crap. Seriously.

Summary

In the what she calls the "flushed and plumbed world", people think of toilets as their rights rather than what they actually are - a privilege. A shocking 40% of the world's population lack decent sanitation which leads to diseases like diarrhea, killing more than 4000 children a day. Sanitation can not only improve hygiene and thereby save lives, it can actually keep girls at school (who, without a toilet, are likely to drop out by the time they reach puberty and start menstruating). By bringing the toilet out from behind the locked door and making it conversational, Rose George thinks and hopes that sanitation does indeed become a right rather than a privilege.

Vocabulary

Open Defecation: 

the practice of defecating (pooping) outside. This is still part of the lives of more than 1 Billion people. By doing that, people are prone to contaminate their water supplies, food and environment with diseases that may be hidden in fecal particles. And because people without sanitation usually don't wash themselves after finishing their business, these particles stay on their hands and feet.

feces: 

medical term for poop

(the other) WTO: 

World Toilet Organisation. Their whole focus is on sanitation and toilets. They try to raise awareness and break the silence to improve the worldwide toilet and sanitation conditions.

communicable disease: 

a disease that is infectious and transmissible among people

Personal Reaction

As you have probably guessed, it was the title that drew my attention. I clicked on this talk because I kind of wanted a distraction, something funny, because I had already watched too many serious talks on serious problems. What a fool. 

The sheer extent of this problem is just very shocking. It is just like she says, we have locked it out of conversation and out of our minds, even though the toilet is something we use several times a day. Before, I had not really given sanitation that much thought. I knew that not everybody in the world has even a rudimental kind of toilet, but I didn't think that this was so crucial to (a child's) health. 

I think we should all "talk shit". This is definitely something that is worth more attention.

Presentation

Rose George has a very blunt, funny, and yet serious way of communicating her ideas. She starts the talk by telling the audience how she one day used a public toilet and then found herself "plunged into the world of sanitation". 

She manages to make the talk both funny and educational at the same time. By making japes and using colloquial language she gets the audience to laugh, catches their attention, and the next moment she shows them shocking statistics. 

I also liked her relaxed way. Throughout the whole 14 minutes, she stands at the same spot and seems very calm and confident.

Stop being stressed and be awesome instead

We all have these tiring days where we just want to escape from everyday life because of emotionally stressful situations. Most people cannot deal with this kind of stress and find themselves in therapies or even worse, doing drugs to calm down. While many believe stress is harmful to the body, it actually has the opposite effect. In a 14-minute video of TED Talks, called ‘How to make stress your friend’ released in June 2013, Kelly McGonigal explains how stress can be healthy and save lives.

Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist who is known for her scientific research on achieving personal goals despite inner conflicts. With her willpower techniques and her stress-coping strategies, she enhances the patients’ quality of life, making it enjoyable again. The emphasis of her work is primarily directed towards people with less self-esteem and self-confidence.

Before I go over to the part where I tell you how to embrace stress, I want to explain several important terms that I find necessary to know in life.

Cardiovascular disease is a term for several other diseases that involves heart or blood vessels, such as heart attack, stroke, arrhythmia, etc. The most common way how to get it is probably by suffering from chronic stress.

Oxytocin is a hormone that is being released when we hug or kiss our loved ones. It can also be released when we help someone out or support people, increasing our empathy and compassion. When it comes to stress-induced damage, this hormone regenerates and heals heart-cells.

Stress-induced heart attack means that the heart attack was caused by stress.

Complementary therapy is being used for treatments without traditional Western medicine. For example, acupuncture.

Alternative therapy is being used for treatments without traditional medicine, i.e. chiropractic, homeopathy, faith healing, etc.

Stress is known as the 15^th largest cause of death in the world. However, this applies only to people who believe that stress is harmful to one’s body. After finding yourself in a situation where the heart pounds vigorously and the uncontrollable urge to breathe faster appears, it is important to see these sensations as energy rather than bad feelings. Your body is preparing you for a challenge that you need to succeed. The way how to make stress your friend is to change your attitude towards stress. What truly matters is how you think about it.

The problem with mental pressure is that it not only affects my milieu, but also everyone else’s. Everyone experiences stress differently, for example, I do when giving presentations. The next time I experience stress, I will recall the discussion with Kenny McGonigal which will help me to succeed not only when presenting, but also in life.

Her presenting techniques are just brilliant. In the beginning, she asks a question and tries to interact with the audience which makes her charismatic. Moreover, her jokes draw the crowd’s attention and, therefore, it increases her self-confidence. With these techniques, it shouldn’t be a problem to give a presentation the next time.

Remember: See the stress-induced sensations as energy, not as a weakness. 

or watch it here:

The voices in my head

The Ted video I have chosen for our health related blogpost is called "The voices in my head" by Eleanor Longden. It was filmed in February 2013 and is about 15 minutes long. As a student Eleanor suddenly started hearing voices in her head. When a friend told her that something was wrong with her and that she needed medical help, schizophrenia was diagnosed. She spent many years in the psychiatric system but still managed to earn a Bachelor's and Master's degree in psychology. Today she is cured and wants to help other people suffering from that mental disease by giving lectures and publishing articles. 

Summary

In the video Eleanor Longden tells her very own story about the sickness schizophrenia. She starts at the very beginning when she first heard voices in her head, talks about how she managed to get cured and finishes with the situation today - how she wants to help other people suffering from schizophrenia. 

Vocab work

medical record: detailed record of all the background of a person or group under study or treatment

Synonyms - anamnesis, medical history

"Now it's down on my medical records that Eleanor has delusions that she's a television news broadcaster"

schizophrenia:any severe disorder in which contact with reality is lost or highly distorted

"I'm now very proud to be a part of Intervoice, the organizational body of the International Hearing Voices Movement, an initiative inspired by the work of Professor Marius Romme and Dr. Sandra Escher, which locates voice hearing as a survival strategy, a sane reaction to insane circumstances, not as an aberrant symptom of schizophrenia to be endured, but a complex, significant and meaningful experience to be explored."

hospital admission: the act when a patient is admitted to hospital

" A hospital admission followed, the first of many, a diagnosis of schizophrenia came next, and then, worst of all, a toxic, tormenting sense of hopelessness, humiliation and despair about myself and my prospects."

Personal reaction

When I read the title "The voices in my head" my attention was immediately drawn at this video. It is a very emotional and touching video because Eleanor talks about her own experiences, her own feelings. For me the video is even more poignant because the daughters of my mom's friend have this disease and I often hear stories about them. She tells us about things you can't even imagine. People suffering from schizophrenia live in their very own world and no one from the outside can understand what they are going through. 

But this video also shows us that if you're strong enough and accept your fate you can be cured. It's a very hard process, but Eleanor shows us that there's help. For me the takeaway message is that you should never give up and that it is very important to have encouraging people around you to help. 

Presentation technique 

When it comes to the presentation I think Eleanor did a really good job. She uses her hands very much while explaining things to emphasise what she's saying. It also makes the presentation more lively and seems like she is very self confident. I also like that she uses short sentences for better understanding. Through quotes she gives the presentation a personal touch and makes it very moving and touching for listeners. 

Your Health Depends On Where You Live

Bill Davenhall - Your Health Depends On Where You Live

This is the TED talk I have chosen for my health-related blog post. The speaker is Bill Davenhall who shows the importance of environment in our lives. He works in the U.S., where he has been living his entire life, as a Senior Health Adviser at ESRI. The video is filmed in October 2009 and is approximately 9 minutes long. The goal he is trying to accomplish is to include environmental and geographical data and merging them into patient's medical record together with medication and surgery history.

Summary

Having experienced the heart attack few years ago Bill decided to find the culprit of it. He started looking where no other doctor had looked before: environment. Air and toxic gases, that factories are letting out and which we inhale every day are damaging our health. But we do not worry about it because they are insidious. What we cannot see cannot harm us, right? Our body and our health depend highly not only on our lifestyle and genetics, but on the environment as well.  

3 useful phrases from the video

Geo-medicine - this is new branch of the medicine so many people haven't even heard about it yet. It is the branch of medicine that takes the environmental, climatic and topographic* impact into consideration. It uses modern technology to see the connection between the patient's health and the exposure to the places he/she has been. This is happening while the patient is in doctor's office. 

(source: https://www.esri.com/library/ebooks/geomedicine.pdf
  http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Geomedicine)

*topography is earth science, graphic representation of the surface features of a place or region

Intensive care ward - if you would suffer from serious disease like trauma (injury), sepsis or organ failure, you would be put in an intensive care ward. It is a room in hospital separated from the rest of the hospital and there work highly trained doctors and nurses. If you're in emergency department and your condition deteriorates, this would require immediate transport to the intensive care unit.

(source:http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ward

               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_care_unit)

to recuperate from emergency surgery - if you're recuperating from a surgery it means your recovering, your condition is getting better,  you regain your strength, be on the mend
(source: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/american-english/regain)

What is the takeaway message for me?

I am glad I stumbled upon this topic by accident because this is the topic I really like. What I like about it is that Bill took example from his life, his experience and based on that explained why is the area where you live so important for your health. People always talk about how air is polluted, how others don't recycle and how we should start taking care of the planet. But have doctor's taken this global problems into account? No. I hope that you, dear readers, as well as my friends and family will take environment into account next time you don't feel well or feel something is not the way it should be. This is tightly connected to the environmental problems and pollution and I honestly hope that people will start taking care of the planet because it means taking care of your health as well. 

Presentation skills

The first thing that caught my eye was the introduction. First, he starts with rhetoric question: "Can geographic information make you healthy?" It's interesting because the question is so simple but it really makes you think. And, in my opinion, it is because people never really thought about it or read about it. It continues with metaphor he later explains. He says: "In 2001 I got hit by a train. My train was a heart attack." His entire presentation is accompanied by a very good presentation that makes it easier to understand. He speaks in a normal speed and uses words everyone can understand so his message can be delivered to everyday people and not only experts of this field. He also has few humorous moments and what definitely intrigued the audience to pay attention throughout the presentation.

I hope you enjoyed my post and learned some new words as well as notice some tips for the presentation you thought were irrelevant before. If you want to find out more about geomedicine here is the link to Bill's official website:
http://www.esri.com/industries/health/geomedicine
https://www.esri.com/library/ebooks/geomedicine.pdfHis Twitter:

https://twitter.com/BillDavenhall
And some of his posts in Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-davenhall/

Sex, drugs and HIV – lets get rational

For this post I've chosen the TEDtalk of Elizabeth Pisani. She's an epidemiologist specializing in HIV and author of the book "Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS".
The talk is called "Sex, drugs and HIV – let's get rational". It was published in April 2010 and is about 19 minutes long (on the TED website).

Summary

The video deals with HIV and how "rational" decisions by drug addicts, politics and partners of those affected influence the HIV rate. Elizabeth Pisani also explains how likely a sexual transmission of HIV is, which is surprisingly much less likely than one would think. She also points out how successful therapy affects people's perception and way of dealing with HIV.

Vocabulary

• to transmit a disease

transmit
transitive verb | trans-mit
medical definition: to pass, transfer or convey from one person or place to another
noun: transmission

• to expose oneself to a disease

expose
transitive verb | ex-pose
medical definition: to make liable or accessible to something (as a disease or environmental conditions) that may have detrimental (=harmful) effect <children exposed to diphtheria>

• to provide national health service

national health service
noun | na-tion-al health ser-vice
a system that provides free health care for everyone and is paid for by taxes

Personal Reaction

This TEDtalk was rather compelling because it provided a more intimate view on HIV and AIDS. It also showed how national health services related to the rate of HIV infection. How political decisions in general can affect this rate.

The correlation between the amount of therapy and infections was quite intriguing as well. Diseases that are under control extremely well are rather likely to rise again. This is mainly due to the fact that will not be as visible. Therefore, people will lose their fear of infection and start to neglect protecting themselves. In some cases, the drawbacks might also simply outweigh the advantages. Something that can also be noticed in the recent discussions about vaccination.

Presentation Technique

Elizabeth Pisani presents her talk really well in my opinion. She speaks slowly and clearly. There is some interaction with the audience and keeps eye contact. Even though she talks about medical issues such as the transmission of HIV, she makes it easy to understand for people who are no specialists in this field.

Pisani uses a lot of humor in her presentation – at the beginning to catch the audience's attention and later to keep it. She also uses slang quite generously, sometimes simply making extremely straight forward statements ("She is a chick with a dick.") This way, she manages to keep the audience from getting bored. It also helps to get the attention of those whose mind has already started wandering back.  Oh, and she chose a really catchy title. What good is a presentation that nobody listens to?

The beginning of her presentation already caught my attention. She started with a quote, which she then revealed as her own in a humorous way. The thing that really spiked my interest though, was when she explained that it was only partially true and she would argue against it. From then on I just really wanted to know how this would turn out.

How a man's disease inspired a big health initiative

Hello my dear fellow students ☺

As you know, we are supposed to write about a TED talk video. I have chosen a presentation called The big idea my brother inspired given by the mechanical engineer Jamie Heywood. In 1998, he had to discover that his younger brother Steven was diagnosed with the terminal illness ALS (explanation below). From this moment on, he focused all his energy on establishing a revolutionary healthcare initiative, called PatientsLikeMe. The video was filmed in October 2009 and lasts approximately 17 minutes.

Fiona and Frank asked us to keep our summary short and sweet. Well, I’ll try. When Jamie’s brother Steven was diagnosed with ALS, the whole family felt alone with all their questions in relation to this disease. The conversations with the doctors weren’t really satisfying – the Heywoods wanted to get first-hand information. For this reason, Jamie founded together with his youngest brother Benjamin and their friend Jeff Cole PatientsLikeMe, a website comparable to a community in which patients with all kind of diseases share their stories, statuses and data. The founders describe it as ‘a health data-sharing platform that […] can transform the way patients manage their own conditions, change the way industry conducts research and improve patient care.’

Well, let’s have a look at some useful terms:

ALS

ALS is an acronym for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a motor neuron disease which leads to a progressive degeneration of nerve cells that control muscle movements. The disease eventually weakens all of the body’s muscles, including the muscles humans need to breathe, until they become paralyzed. For this reason, most people with ALS die of respiratory failure.

Some collocations are ALS patient, ALS association and of course ALS Ice Bucket Challenge ;)

Terminal disease

A terminal disease is a disease that always leads to death. It’s lethal. ALS is an example for a terminal disease.

This term was used in the description of Jamie Heywood:

When MIT-trained mechanical engineer Jamie Heywood discovered that his younger brother was diagnosed with the terminal illness ALS, […].

Stem cell transplant/Bone marrow transplant

A stem cell transplant, also known as bone marrow transplant, is a medical procedure in which healthy stem cells are infused into the human body in order to replace damaged or diseased ones. Transplant can either be gained from your own body or from a donor’s body. Jamie Heywood donated some of his stem cells for his brother.

Collocations: Stem cell transplant recipient, stem cell transplant donor

I really admire the spirit of this family and I think all of us should be inspired by this positive thinking from time to time. When Steven was diagnosed with ALS they didn’t give up. On the contrary, they started to search ways to make Steven’s live better and to help him and other ALS patients. Today, PatientsLikeMe is a huge community with 45,000 members who all profit from the initial idea. That’s a great success. And even though Steven passed away in 2006, I am really happy that the idea of his brothers and friends still helps many patients all over the world by bringing them together and helping them to build each other up.

When it comes to presentation techniques, I especially liked the introduction. The speaker starts by telling the audience the story of his brother. That's catching – in a sad way of course – and awakes the viewer’s interest. I also like the way Jamie gesticulates in order to emphasize his words. Something I really enjoyed are the charts and pictures that are included in the presentation. They are embedded very well and support the presentation instead of disturbing it.

I am looking forward to reading your health blogs :)

All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

The TED video I have chosen is called “All it takes is 10 mindful minutes”.  The speaker is Andy Puddicombe, who is from Great Britain. He is a former Buddhist monk and mindfulness expert. Puddicombe has also founded a social platform called Headspace that offers guided meditation sessions. The video was published in January 2013 and is nine minutes and 25 seconds long.

Summary:

This video is not about physical health, but mental health. Andy Puddicombe introduces us into the topic of meditation, but in a different way to what we expect. He says it just takes 10 minutes a day to change our view on life. In these 10 minutes you should try to think about nothing; not about the past nor the future, not about happiness nor anxieties. We spend a lot more time than that caring about our look or material possessions. Our mind, however, is the most powerful possession we have, so we should take care of that one too.

We can’t change every little thing that happens to us in life, but we can change the way that we experience it. 

Vocab work:

preventative, also preventive: intended to stop something you do not want to happen from happening, for example an illness

collocations:

preventive measure, preventive  action

to be inundated: to receive so much of something that you cannot easily deal with it all

context/usage in the video:

“You get stressed, you do some meditation. I hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature, until I was about 20, when a number of things happened in my life in quite quick succession, really serious things which just flipped my life upside down and all of a sudden I was inundated with thoughts, inundated with difficult emotions that I didn't know how to cope with”.

to be agitated: to be so nervous or upset that you are unable to keep still or think calmly
commonly used:

to be in an agitated state, to grow agitated

context/usage in the video:

You might find a mind that's really restless the whole time. Don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated in your body when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. 

Personal reaction:

When Andy Puddicombe first said that we should try to do nothing, to not even think about anything, I was like “Not thinking anything? That’s not even possible!” I have tried to do that several times before but somehow I never succeeded. Maybe I didn’t have the right motivation. I was just curious to see if you can really do something like that. Another point Puddicombe addressed that affected me in a certain way, was that we spend so little time in the present. In the moment we are living right now. We are always thinking about the past, regretting chances we didn’t take and moves we didn’t make. And if we’re – for once – not thinking about the past, we think about the future. I believe that this is totally true. Even now, as I am writing this post, I am thinking about the future. I am thinking of which grade I will receive, if I will pass the upcoming exam, if I will be proud of myself. Or disappointed. All these thoughts take over my mind and make it hard for me to concentrate on the truly important things. Friends, family, love. That is what makes me happy and therefore keeps me mentally healthy. If I ever happen to be in a hopeless situation though, I will remind myself of Andy Puddicombe’s words and sacrifice 10 minutes for mindful thinking.

Presentation technique:

Andy Puddicombe starts his presentation with a statement, followed by a question to the audience. I think this is a very good way to start a presentation because people start listening and thinking about what you say if they are addressed directly. Puddicombe also uses gestures to emphasize his words. He shares his own experiences with the audience to make this topic more interesting. Sometimes he also tells little jokes. Additionally, he gives examples to help the people understand what he wants to say and uses juggling balls to demonstrate his thoughts. It really fascinated me how he can talk and juggle simultaneously. On the whole, I really enjoyed watching his presentation and it inspired me to try out meditation. 

  

"Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so and the consequences may be… severe."

Even though, I hate Umbirdge as much any other Harry Potter fan does, I cannot deny this statement. You cannot run away from your responsibilities because they’ll track you down in your free time, sleep… And you'll be in bigger problems than you're now.

I decided to write a free post for all of you who have just seen what our next months will look like. Well, I'm extremely bad with time management and during the exams is the smartest idea to practise it! Before „that time of the year“ begins (I'm not talking about Christmas though), I decided to make a study plan for upcoming months. I was almost shocked when I saw how many exams are ahead of me. I started panicking a bit because I wasn't sure where to start or how to organize my time. So, I sat down, took a sheet of paper wrote down some tips that may help: 

You should be studying  

Draw a calendar (or use Word, whatever suits you best) and mark all of the important dates like exams, presentations, culture days, concerts (you cannot study all the time, you need a break too)…For each subject write down what topics will be covered in an exam so you already know what your stronger and weaker topics are. For example, you know your mother tongue better than a foreign language, so you’ll need more time, practice and patience to master it.

After you've familiarized yourself with exam stuff, divide them into smaller sections. Every day do a little bit of everything. In that way, there's no chance you'll find yourself in June with a pile of books to read or countless pages to learn.

Make sure you take breaks every now and then. You're not a robot and you need a break. Make some coffee, go out for a walk, play games, run or go to gym, draw, do something that relaxes you. By all means. Do not work the whole day or you'll go crazy.

This sounds perfect so far, does it? And it sounds relatively easy to accomplish and you feel enthusiastic: "Yes, I can do it and I will do it!" Good job, that's the spirit. But, as it usually happens, excitement that you have now doesn't really last. Usually, when things get slightly harsh, students tend to surrender and leave all the work until the very last minute. Don't do that to yourself. Be a bit more determined.

When it gets harsh and you want to give up, remind yourself how lucky you actually are. Be thankful that you have the chance to go to college and to be buried under a pile of books and papers. Not everyone in this world has that chance.  Knowing that I have a chance to live a decent life and help other people who don’t, pushes me beyond my mental limits and gives me strength to go on.

    

Just eat it!

Have you ever thought of how many of your groceries end up in the litter every day? Working as a waitress for the last two summer holidays showed me: We drop too much. People ordered food, but hardly touched it. I had to throw away whole dishes, just because my guest’s eyes were bigger than their stomach. I perfectly remember one Italian family. Their four kids wanted to have a Schnitzel with french fries. The Schnitzel in the restaurant I was working for is really big. I knew they already had a starter and would surely love to eat dessert after the main course. I offered them to share a plate, but they insisted on having one per person. Their parents told me to listen to them. You surely can imagine the end of the story: four Schnitzel found their way right into the garbage.

Some restaurant-chains try to stop this trend. One of them is Nando’s. If you eat there, you will see that dishes for one person are pretty expensive. As soon as you order a plate to share you eat very cheap. There is enough on your plate to get your stomach full, but you don’t overdo it. Unfortunately there is no Nando’s in Austria. Still, you have got enough possibilities to eat cheap and eco-friendly in Graz: The L’Osteria serves pizza way too big for one person to eat. You can take it with you if you want to order one for you alone, or share it.

Another problem of our throwing-away culture is the way we behave as customers of grocery-markets. We often xpect to be able to buy everything we want to at every time. We expect the vegetables to look as fresh and appealing in the evening as they did in the morning. This is why many groceries are thrown away, no matter if they are edible or not. It would take too much time to explain all aspects of this problem here, so I highly recommend watching this movie:

http://www.foodwastemovie.com/about/

This couple started an experiment called Just eat it. They had to survive for six months by eating discarded food. The only exception of this rule was if meals were served by family or friends. Their struggle and experiences with it is really worth watching.

Rice Salad

Rice Salad

As this meal is not really known in Austria, I thought I could share with you a recipe I love to use in the summer months. The rice salad is a quite refreshing, healthy and tasty meal you can prepare in 15 minutes. This salad is excellent on its own and also perfectly fits for a barbecue side-dish! ;)

Ingredients

•           Rice (as much as you want), knowing that 1 cup + 2 cup water ≈ 2 people
• -         Tomatoes (idem)
•           Corn (idem)
•           Lettuce (idem)
• -         Olives (idem)
•           1 or 2 tuna can(s) (optional: my mother uses this but I don’t)
•        In fact, everything you like to put in it like maybe prawn, ham, cheese, carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, nuts, etc.

My personal salad-dressing

•           1/2 teaspoon(s) of hot Dijon mustard
•           Wine vinegar
•           Olive oil
• -         Pepper, salt
•           Herbs (I use the Provence herbs but you can use what ever you want)

Preparation

1.           Cook the rice as if you were cooking pasta (that’s important because your cooked rice shouldn’t be sticky).
2.           While the rice is cooking cut the tomatoes in cubes, cut the lettuce and put it and the other ingredients into a big bowl.
3.           Once the rice is done, drain it using a colander. Cool the rice off using cold water and when the rice has become cool, add it to the other ingredients.
4.           In order to prepare you dressing, just put all the ingredients together and stir your preparation until it becomes a unified color.
5.           Pour your dressing into the salad and mix everything together and…

... your rice salad is ready to eat! J

1.